


In These Moments

by ThereIsNoTragedyInThat



Series: Just You and Me and the Grief [2]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: F/F, Immortal Wives Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Canon, Short & Sweet, Whumptober, protective Andromache of Scythia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26792506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThereIsNoTragedyInThat/pseuds/ThereIsNoTragedyInThat
Summary: There was nothing to do but to hold her until the nightmares slipped away.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko
Series: Just You and Me and the Grief [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947685
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	In These Moments

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Man Handling

Andromache swung her axe carefully, shadows in her eyes of the many men she’d felled with this weapon over the years. Although she cared for it as a lover might, the handle had begun to grow worn, slippery, prompting her to wrap new leather around its hilt. Now she played in the darkness of night, practicing and enjoying the burn in her arms and her back with each careful shifting stance.

Behind her the fire crackled lightly, the sparks drifting up into the air and casting off a comforting warmth. Quynh laid next to it, curled tightly in her bedroll and the extra blankets they’d managed to steal only a fortnight ago. She envied her ability to lay down and fall asleep without fearing what terrors might be in store for her…not that it would last. The nightmares had been growing in intensity and number lately.

Soon enough she would avoid sleep as Andromache did.

At least for now there was some purpose to it. They had been dreaming plenty of late, of two men among a sea of bodies, slowly rising to their feet again and again and again. Quynh seemed to be excited by the prospect of more but Andromache found herself weary, two immortals appearing at once and together? Something about it felt wrong and she did not know if it was her instincts or her jealousy.

It was obvious they were enemies, though time had softened the blows to their pride and beliefs. Still, she would have given anything not to be alone with her immortality when she discovered it, she would have taken anyone, enemy or not. Regardless, they would have to find each other, if only to get each other’s measure.

The loss of Lykon sat like a stone in her gut, the memory a knife in her heart being twisted over and over again. She did not know why Quynh was so eager to open herself up to more pain, to more loss but she was helpless to follow.

A noise drew her attention back to the campfire. Quynh had rolled onto her back, away from the fire and her expression seemed to be twisted into duress. Casting one last glance at the shadows of the trees that surrounded them, she wandered closer, waiting to see what more they might learn about the men they were looking for.

She set her axe aside and crouched down next to her, knowing better than to loom over the woman with a weapon. Quynh did not stir right away so she absently reached out and brushed back her hair, smiling softly as she did so and noting they would need to stop soon and bathe somewhere.

They’d been creeping closer to the bigger cities and they would need to appear less like vagrants and more like weary travelers if they were to get a place to eat, let alone stay for the nights. Quynh’s brows furrowed and her lips parted, the one hand resting on her stomach turning into a fist.

Andromache frowned and wondered if the men had killed each other again. She had thought they were past the endless deaths. At first it had been sad, then it had been funny, and finally they were just annoyed as their dreams made them die over and over again with them. Andromache sincerely hoped they were at very least still friends and it had only been an accident.

A soft noise escaped from Quynh’s lips and what would have been a sigh to anyone else, she recognized as a gasp for breath. It was enough to have Andromache reach out, attempting to rouse her gently with a touch to her shoulder, a quiet murmur of her name, “Quynh.”

She moved faster than a striking snake.

The arm that had been buried in the blankets lashed out, knife in hand and aimed with deadly precision for Andromache’s throat. She shoved back at the last minute, leaving the blade to miss her by a hairs breadth and suddenly there was a weight on top of her and Andromache reached up to grip the wrist with the knife, trying to unbalance them.

Catching a glimpse of Quynh’s eyes was all she needed to know that this had not been a dream of those men but a nightmare of battles past, playing out in her mind and body. With a grunt of effort, Andromache disarmed the knife with a flick of her wrist just as Quynh shifted to press a knee to her throat.

It was easy to get out from beneath her given the state she was in, so she flipped the woman she loved onto her back, slamming her into the dirt where they wrestled to get a grip on the other for a long moment until Andromache got her in a loose chokehold.

She did not cut off the air, but she had her on her stomach, arms pinned beneath her in the dirt and legs pressed harshly beneath Andromache’s knees. They were both breathing hard as they waited for several long moments.

“Andromache?”

Relief filled her, creating a dizzying effect but she still not dare let her up, not yet, “Quynh, are you with me?”

Her entire body slumped, all the strain disappearing all at once and just like that Andromache found herself releasing her, only to wrap her arms firmly around her stomach and pull her back until they were both seated, Quynh between her legs, her back to her chest, and a gentle hand running through her hair.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Andromache admonished quietly. “You never have to apologize to me. Even if you’d gotten a lucky swing, you can’t get rid of me.”

Quynh squeezed her thigh, tilted her head up to stare at the stars above them, trying to clear her mind and Andromache sat there in silence, simply holding her. There were no words to be said, she knew intimately, what kind of nightmares could plague an immortal who’d suffered so many deaths, had seen men who didn’t have an inch of the memories they had, string themselves up just to escape it.

No. There was nothing to be done but sit here in each other’s arms and wait for it to pass.


End file.
